New Delhi: Deposed Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina has said she and her younger sister Sheikh Rehana escaped death by just 20-25 minutes on August 5 last year when her Awami League government was toppled in a student-led mass uprising.
In a brief audio note released by her party on its Facebook page, Hasina expressed her gratitude to God for saving her life.
She also recalled two previous attempts on her life she narrowly escaped and said she believed that God had saved her life as part of a divine design to get something greater done by her.
Sheikh Hasina recalled that there were conspiracies to kill her at various times.
“I just feel that surviving the killings on August 21, or surviving the huge bomb in Kotalipara, surviving on this time August 5, 2024, there must be a will of Allah, a hand of Allah”, she said.
“Otherwise, I’m not going to survive this time!” she added.
“You later saw how they planned to kill me”, Hasina said.
“However, it seems to be a mercy of Allah that I am still alive because Allah wants me to do something more”, she said.
“Although I am suffering, I am without my country, without my home, everything has been burned”, she said in an emotionally tearful voice.
Sheikh Hasina’s security was very high as she escaped several assassination plots. The 2004 Dhaka grenade attack took place at an anti-terrorism rally organized by Awami League on Bangabandhu Avenue on August 21, 2004. The attack left 24 dead and more than 500 injured. The attack was carried out at 5:22 pm after Sheikh Hasina, the then leader of opposition had finished addressing a crowd of 20,000 people from the back of a truck. Hasina also sustained some injuries in the attack.
The Kotalipara bomb was another plot to kill Sheikh Hasina that she referred to in her audio message. The 76kg bomb was recovered on July 21, 2000, and two days later, the 40 kg bomb was recovered at Sheikh Lutfor Rahman Ideal College in Kotalipara, where Awami League President and the then leader of the opposition Sheikh Hasina was supposed to address the rally on July 22, 2000.
